I went undercover as a cleaner at a failing care home.

I witnessed many scenes of care and distress in a hidden care house in a seven weeks in an overly stretched care house, but there was an event that I suspected of staying with me for a long time.

In the worst days, at the lowest levels of the staff, the residents would sometimes shout to help because they heard that they had passed the cleaning tram rooms.

Some were desperate to help to go to the toilet, others just wanted to be washed and dressed for the day.

As a cleaner, there was very little I could do, except for the comfort and assurance words I told to care personnel.

One day, I sat down with a woman in a night that needed help to be taken from the bed only 8FT away to the toilet.

The room echoed with a good sign of a life – a proud career, foreign holidays with loving family, a clean curator wardrobe wardrobe.

While waiting for a caregiver to come, he begged me not to go.

He was increasingly uncomfortable.

I tried to disturb him with a little speech about the landscape and the weather.

Now he listened until he hidden his distress.

He began to sob when his physical capacity finally collapsed to wait for the toilet.

I felt sadness many times in the nursing home, but this is the first time I felt anger for the loss of dignity that can be completely prevented.

Our investigation was triggered by an interview with Susan Christie, who spent two years in Castlehill, his father Inverness.

It is invoiced as a luxury house and charges up to £ 1,800 a week.

However, Susan was so worried by the standard of his father’s care that he set up a secret camera in his room – and was horrified by what he saw.

“He was not washed properly, he was left on an incontinence pad for more than 12 hours, he never went to the toilet, unreachable foods poured himself a hot puree.” He said.

“This was neglect.”

The last straw came when a cleaner was pulled by shaking the bed frame strongly shaking the bed frame before he restricted him with a cane.

He was later dismissed and had nine complaints supported by the Maintenance Inspector of Susan.

In May, he took his father out of Castlehill.

To compare Castlehill with the other 1,000 maintenance houses in Scotland, the BBC sent a request for freedom of information to the Sector Organizer to ask which care houses in Scotland are supported.

Castlehill took place on the top of the list with 10 complaints in 2024.

We interviewed four families with stories with similar concerns – but they were all historical.

The only way to judge whether this is still going on was to go in and see ourselves.

In order to ask for a secret to the film, we have gone through meticulous BBC internal processes.

It is thought that there is an important public interest in gathering evidence of this nature.

In May, I found myself looking for a care house to ask if there was any cleaning job.

I was invited for an interview and I was asked to start immediately.

At the same time, the home inspector has taken special measures due to improvement notifications given by a number of issues.

They were under the spotlight – will things be healing?

What I found was an inadequate home that did not have the right personnel mixture to deal with the basic needs of residents, especially those of dementia.

This distress led to aggressive behavior and crisis situations.

While I was screaming around my cleaning car around the corridors, I was aware of the begging faces of the faces facing the bedrooms, hoping to talk.

At least these people still hoped for a moment of human connection. I came to realize that others had given up.

One day I assured a man who needed a toilet: “I told the caregivers, they say they’re coming.”

“Yes, so is Christmas,” he replied.

From everything I tried to prepare before it was hidden, I did not expect to create real ties with the people living there.

One day the truth of this was sitting in my car one day and I was drowned with emotions.

Previously, I found myself a bucket because of the smell that could not stay longer than 20 seconds while cleaning a resident’s room.

The plateau was served in the room breakfast and once spent hours of sitting there.

Nobody was thinking of opening their curtains or windows.

At least I can get out of there at the end of my shift. They couldn’t.

During my time at home, I usually found residents lying in wet clothes or dirty sheets.

I heard that women screamed behind the closed doors because male caregivers were doing their sincere care.

The influence of the over -stretched personnel was clear.

The tasks to be completed had a tick list, and often it was too long to include meaningful participation, support for eating, or unhurried control care.

There were some carers who tried to make the lives of the residents better and have managed to take time to interact in their busy days, but these moments were less and more far away.

The caregivers were paid £ 13 per hour to make sincere personal care and much more for people with very complex needs. This complies with industrial standards.

I interviewed Donald McASKILLI from Scottish Maintenance for the BBC disclosure investigation.

One of the quotes stuck to me.

“You can get more than sitting in someone’s bed to walk a dog from Edinburgh’s meadows, you can hold your hands while filling the ends.” He said.

“I find that obscene for me.”

The experts we interviewed were unanimously accepted. They said the care sector was in the crisis.

They made inadequate funding, personnel scarcity and unprecedented deductions in Frontsine Dementia Support Services.

It is estimated that the number of people with dementia will double by 2040 – with a ground of increasing care demand – all the expert participants in our film called for a nationwide speech about the future of the sector.

Families often told me that there was no choice but to place their loved ones in a care house.

It wasn’t really a choice, it was the result of a crisis or lack of home care support.

Guilt, like the burden of complex financial arrangements with care homes, gave great weight to them.

This is a situation that touches most families at some point.

The work was not all apocalypse and gloom.

In my last week, a new event leader began to organize music concerts and play mandolin in the halls, the great joy of some residents.

A new deputy director brought his mind to the task of combating the smell of urine that penetrated the first floor.

The inhabitants were unexpectedly emphasizing me when I had difficulty walking through Castlehill’s front gates.

A man stood in the hallway to tell me volunteering and how much he enjoyed helping others this time.

As he laughed about situations he found himself, he suddenly shortened the conversation.

He said the bus had matched every minute and did not want to miss.

He surprised me that he thought we were two strangers chatting at the bus stop.

Although this is not the case, we both received joy from this human connection.

With a few minutes, I have learned that you can encourage someone from their shells or facilitate their confusion.

This was the only thing they needed to get away with a smile or at least to be quiet than they first approached you.

When I worked at home, I often wore a secret camera that registered.

I was worried that someone could detect a secret lens or the battery would fall from my clothes.

Fortunately, none of this happened.

Once I forgot to wear the fake glasses I adopted while changing a partial disguise.

I was worried that one of my highlands and my country would get into the house and get to know me, so disguise gave me a little assurance.

In half of a staff meeting, someone asked how to see it properly without glasses today?

I went on my way with a statement not to take my coffee yet and to accidentally leave it in the car. It was a sloppy mistake I didn’t repeat.

There were days when the camera failed or the battery ended.

First of all, there were other days I had to help the inhabitants, and I couldn’t open the camera.

From the beginning I was clear in something – my priority had to have residents and needs.

That was the whole of the investigation. The shooting was second.

There were some bad care events I didn’t save on the camera, but I left with a clear conscience.

It was the privilege of this role to transcend the cross paths briefly with interesting, funny and attractive characters led to rich and colorful lives.

We sang the songs together, danced in the hallway, hugged, discussed all kinds of issues from Caravaggio and Gaelic lessons to Donald Trump and Dog Walk – and we laughed a lot.

Without realizing it, the inhabitants spent me in a difficult job.

I left Castlehill Care Home on August 9th.

As the last time out of the doors, a question that is repeated in my mind – of course they deserve better?

Castlehill Care Home, which is traded under the name of Simply Inverness, said: “We were horrified by the images published in the BBC program.

“It has not been provided to us in advance and does not reflect the situation today.

“The security, health and prosperity of the inhabitants always continue to be our absolute priority.

“Maintenance Inspector has accepted important developments in the last three months.

“We must ensure that these improvements are maintained.

He continued: “The renovation of the house is deposited over £ 1 million and we thank all the residents and their families for patience during the renovation.”

Highland Health and Social Care Partnership Spokesman: “The content of the BBC disclosure documentary about Castlehill Care Home, which emphasizes problems with safe, quality care, was interested in everyone to see, and we understand how deeply this is for their families.

“We have a key partner in supporting and protecting adults, and we expect standards to be met by any care house provider in Highland.

“Castlehill Care Home provider did not meet these standards.

He continued: “Currently the care house acceptance continues to be suspended and the necessary standards are met and will continue until it is absolutely confident.”

If you are affected by the problems that arise in this story, information and support can be found at the following address. BBC’s action line.